Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, February 16th, is Elizabeth Paratrovich Day.

In 1988, the Alaska legislature officially established February 16th as a day to honor Paratrovich,

an Alaska native who fought for equal rights for Native peoples in the

40s and 50s.

We've touched on a few stories of Alaska and having to do with Alaska natives on this show, but

this is our chance to kind of do a little profile of a really remarkable

woman and an incredible activist.

So here to discuss, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley,

who is continuing to star I guess one something's on Netflix it's just out it's there

But you're still that series we're still telling people about it. Yeah

Yeah, yeah African Queens Queen and Jinga, check it out. It came out yesterday and it'll be out as long as it's up on

Netflix. So check it. Once you're on Netflix, you're a star forever.

Hello, Nicky. Hello, Jody.

So maybe we could talk a little bit about the background for Elizabeth Paratroich in a second, but I want

to just jump right to the moment where this woman becomes a little mobilized, right?

And it seems to be the result of a road trip of sorts that she is taking.

But what is it that leads Elizabeth Paratrovers to become a

civil rights activist as best we can tell? She had been living in more remote

places in Alaska for much of her life but in 1941 when she's

living in Juneau with her husband she and her husband are encountering quite a lot of

...